Alexandre Silveira is Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil
For COP29, the 2024 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, which is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan, Brazil has good news. According to the Ten-Year Energy Expansion Plan 2034 (PDE), released last week, the country is advancing in the increasing use of clean and renewable sources, such as in the production of biofuels and in the new green industry. Thus, it consolidates the path adopted to face the challenge of expanding the energy supply aimed at sustaining economic and social growth and development.
With the PDE, the country now has a powerful public management instrument to face the destructive effects of climate change. It is a detailed plan in 576 pages, which serves as a reliable tool for understanding the areas of the economy, infrastructure and ecosystems connected to the Brazilian energy sector.
Some of the positive impacts of the main initiatives and programs developed in 2023 and 2024 by the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) are already included. Examples include the National Energy Transition Policy, Fuel of the Future, Gas for Employment, the Legal Framework for Low-Carbon Emission Hydrogen and Mining for Clean Energy, among others.
The launch of the public consultation on the document provides civil society and public and private institutions with the possibility of contributing suggestions and proposals. Credit for resuming energy planning falls to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
It is important to highlight that the PDE, prepared by the Energy Research Company (EPE), linked to the MME, also included the participation of several other institutions, associations and companies. Its primary objective is to indicate, and not determine, the needs and prospects for expanding the energy sector, from the perspective of the federal government and with an integrated vision for the various energy sources available.
The prospects presented are very promising. One of them is that advances in energy efficiency could reduce, in 2034, energy consumption in Brazil by 7% in relation to the total consumed in 2023. This can be achieved through the adoption of more efficient technologies and the availability of more information so that consumers can make choices that result in savings. It is also estimated that there will be an increase in the supply of biofuels and that the electricity sector will continue the process of diversification and integration of the energy matrix.
The PDE reinforces the commitment to sustainability, predicting that the electrical matrix will maintain a high share of renewable sources until 2034, above 85%, even with strong growth in demand during the period. The diversification of the matrix continues to advance, with an emphasis on increasing the installed capacity of renewable projects. At the same time, the focus remains on energy security, with the strengthening of thermoelectric generation, the modernization of hydroelectric plants and the improvement of battery storage solutions.
The numbers indicate a 35% jump in the country’s total installed capacity, going from 237 GW in 2024 to 320 GW in 2034, growth driven by robust investments over the next decade (R$352 billion in centralized generation, R$117 billion in distributed generation and R$129 billion in transmission). Planning helps in the formulation of public policies on several fronts, such as meeting the growth of the national economy and obtaining better use of national energy resources. It is essential that expansion occurs while preserving the environment and guaranteeing access to the entire population.
This path makes our energy transition fairer and more inclusive, with social public policies, combining the fight against energy poverty and regional inequalities, with an emphasis on creating jobs and generating income.
The PDE is, at the same time, realistic and visionary. It shows that believing in Brazil means valuing our potential as a country and everything we can achieve as a nation. Made with intelligence, based on facts and data, immune to insubstantial daydreams, it gives us more security to overcome the challenges of the present and the future.
